


Be My Queen

by akisazame



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-15
Updated: 2009-01-15
Packaged: 2018-02-24 12:58:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2582222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akisazame/pseuds/akisazame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tomorrow's date, a Sunday, was highlighted with a red star, drawn awkwardly lopsided.  "Counting down to something?"</p>
<p>"Uh-huh!"  Nanako looked up at him, her huge smile becoming somehow even wider.  "Teddie's gonna come play with me tomorrow!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be My Queen

It was a rare day that Dojima was home from work in the afternoon, but now that Inaba had returned to its usual, peaceful self, he was finding that he had more spare time than before. He glanced over his newspaper at the clock; right about now was when Nanako should be getting home from school. Sure enough, he heard the door open -- open, then slam violently as though it had been opened with a great deal of force. There was a brief silence, then a pattering of socked feet as Nanako ran into the room.

"Nanako!" Dojima shouted, standing up and staring firmly at his daughter. "What have I told you about running in the house?"

The little girl seemed to not notice her father at all, likely since she was used to him not being around when she got home. He sighed, imagining what other household rules Nanako might be breaking while unsupervised. He watched as she skidded to a stop in front of the calendar, picked up a black marker, then reached up on her tiptoes to mark an X on today's date. Only after she turned around, a huge smile on her face, did she notice her father standing there. "Dad! I thought you were working!"

Seeing the smile on her face made Dojima's anger melt away. "They let me go early today. Not much to do at the station these days." He walked over to where his daughter stood, patting her softly on the head as he looked at the mark she'd made on the calendar. He didn't use the calendar much himself -- it was more for decoration, really -- so he hadn't noticed before that every single day that had passed was marked off with a black X. Furthermore, tomorrow's date, a Sunday, was highlighted with a red star, drawn awkwardly lopsided. "Counting down to something?"

"Uh-huh!" Nanako looked up at him, her huge smile becoming somehow even wider. "Teddie's gonna come play with me tomorrow!"

It was nearly the end of the month, so it seemed as though Nanako had been looking forward to this for a while. Her favorite playmate was quite an enigma to Dojima; he had come around quite often when Souji had been living with them, but ever since his nephew had returned home, Dojima had seldom seen Teddie. At first he had just assumed that the blond boy had stopped coming because Souji had left, but upon consideration Dojima realized that he rarely saw the boy anywhere anymore. Occasionally Yosuke or Chie or one of Souji's other friends would drop by to play with Nanako, but Teddie never did. This made Nanako far sadder than she wanted to let on.

Dojima smiled down kindly at his daughter. He harbored some doubts that Teddie might not actually come, but he would die before admitting any of that to her. "Well, I'm glad. You have a good time tomorrow, okay?"

She nodded in response, then took her father's hand, pulling him towards the couch. "C'mon, Dad, let's watch TV!"

\---

Nanako woke at dawn the next day, all excitement and energy, but she was crushed when she looked out the window and saw it was raining. "Stupid lady on the TV!" she said to herself with a pout. "Pick better weather!"

Pushing her disappointment aside, she got dressed and went downstairs to fix herself some eggs for breakfast. Yosuke had said that Teddie would meet her at the gazebo on the flood plain, but she wasn't allowed to go out by herself in the rain. She took her plate of eggs and sat on her cushion in front of the TV to eat, changing the channel to Featherman R. She thought hard about what she should do. Dad would get mad if she went out in the rain; ever since she'd been in the hospital, he'd been worried she would catch a cold. But Dad had left early for work as usual, so there's no way he would know if she snuck out -- unless he caught her in the act, that is. But she'd been waiting so long for this day...

A knock on the door made Nanako's worries melt away. She nearly lost her balance as she ran over to the door, flinging it open, absolutely convinced that it would be Teddie. Her face fell when she saw that it was Yosuke instead.

"Mornin', Nanako-chan!" Yosuke said, beaming at the second grader. The smile faded when he saw the look on her face. "Oh... not who you were expecting, huh?"

Nanako blinked a few times and forced herself to smile. The last thing she wanted to do was make Yosuke sad. "No, I'm happy you came to see me, Yosuke! Did you come over to play instead?" Despite her best efforts, there was still a bit of disappointment lingering in the word "instead."

The smile came back to Yosuke's face immediately. "Actually, Nanako-chan, I'm here to take you to Junes!"

The little girl's eyes widened until they were as big as saucers. "Really?! Junes?! Yay!!!" Childishly, her words spilled into her next question without a second thought. "Will Teddie be there too?"

Yosuke looked away, which made Nanako think that the trip to Junes was just to make up for the fact that Teddie wasn't coming after all. However, his next words made her fears melt away. "Er, well... something like that."

"Yay!! Teddie _and_ Junes! Thank you, Yosuke!!" The vagueness of Yosuke's statement was utterly lost on Nanako, who was simply thrilled that she was going to see her favorite person at her favorite place. She ran back to put her breakfast plate in the sink, then got her coat as quickly as she could.

\---

Yosuke had expected that Nanako would be skeptical, but he hadn't expected that she would outright refuse to go.

"No! You can't make me!" The little girl was practically crying in the middle of the electronics department at Junes, screaming at the high schooler at the top of her lungs. "I'm not ever going back in there, ever ever!"

He was at the end of his rope, with no idea what to do. He always fell over himself when trying to talk to little kids. "Nanako-chan, seriously, I promise that Teddie is waiting on the other side. And it's different in there now. Totally not scary at all. Don't you trust me?"

Nanako hiccupped, looking up at Yosuke with fear in her eyes. "B- but Daddy'll get mad at me. He'll be sad if I get sick again."

Crouching down so he could look her in the eyes, Yosuke reached out tentatively and patted the top of Nanako's head. "I promise nothing bad will happen to you. Teddie will protect you, and I'll protect you too. I'll go through with you, and you'll be totally safe. Just trust me, okay? Trust Teddie."

Firmly planting her feet on the ground as she did, Nanako crossed her little arms across her chest in a gesture of refusal.

Yosuke sighed heavily, then glanced up and down the aisles to make sure no one else was around. After confirming that the department was as empty as always, he stuck his head inside the TV, much to Nanako's horror. She stood there wide-eyed, watching the screen pulsate around Yosuke's protruding neck and shoulders as a full minute passed. Finally, the older boy's head emerged from the TV again, causing Nanako to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Teddie said he made a present for you, Nanako-chan," Yosuke said, reaching out to grab the little girl's hand. "He said he'd be sad if you didn't come, because then he couldn't give it to you. He worked really hard on it."

Despite her overwhelming fear, Nanako's curiosity was even stronger. "A present? For me?"

"Yeah, so I'll take you over there so he can give it to you, okay?" Yosuke squeezed her hand gently, a silent promise that he wouldn't let go, that he would keep her safe.

Nanako thought hard about this. She still had nightmares about what had happened to her the last time she'd gone -- no, been forced -- through the TV. Nightmares of that bad man Namatame (although her dad had tried to explain to her that he hadn't been the _real_ bad man, just helping the bad man somehow -- the whole thing didn't make a whole lot of sense to her), and of the peaceful, yet somehow still frightening, world that she had been trapped in on the other side. On the other hand, Teddie was on the other side, and had a present that he'd made himself. It wouldn't be very nice to ignore him, and she _had_ been waiting for this day for a very long time now.

"Okay," Nanako said finally, giving a little nod. She didn't look up at Yosuke, instead fixing her eyes firmly on the TV in front of them.

\---

Going through the TV was a strange feeling indeed. Nanako had been unconscious when Namatame had put her through the first time, so she hadn't before experienced the weird slippery sensation or the dizzying array of black and white lines clouding her vision. She finally had to force her eyes shut to keep herself from throwing up her breakfast. After what seemed like forever, she landed with a thump on a soft surface, her hand still clutching Yosuke's.

"Open your eyes, Nanako-chan." Yosuke's voice came through the darkness, soft and soothing, and the second grader did as her high school playmate suggested.

Immediately she was overwhelmed by the beauty of the place. It reminded her of the flood plain in some ways, with the greenery and flowing water, but it was even more beautiful than that, completely untouched by any kind of urban growth. The sky was almost unbearably blue, and there was no sound at all save the rippling water in the nearby river. Eyes wide, she let her hand slip from Yosuke's as she ran to the water's edge, peering in excitedly, hoping for a glimpse of a fish or a tadpole.

When she turned back to beckon at Yosuke, she saw that he was gone, and that Teddie was there instead. But it wasn't the "normal" human Teddie that she knew, but the Teddie that she'd seen inside the TV, the one in the bear costume, like the plushie he'd given her on Christmas. She blinked at him, confused. "Teddie?"

The bear's expression didn't change, but it seemed to her as if it was smiling. "Nana-chan."

Hearing that voice was all she needed. She jumped up and ran towards the brightly-colored bear, throwing herself at him for a huge hug. Her tiny arms couldn't even reach halfway around the huge costume. "Teddie! I missed you!!"

"I missed you, too, Nana-chan." The voice that came from the bear was tinged with sadness and regret.

Releasing him from the hug, Nanako's little hands reached up towards the zipper that connected Teddie's head and torso. "Take the silly costume off, Teddie! I wanna see you!"

The big bear eyes looked down at her, and Nanako could have sworn they looked sad somehow. "You are seeing me, Nana-chan. This is the way Teddie really looks. Well... kind of."

"Kind of?" Nanako blinked up at the bear, confused.

Teddie wasn't the brightest bear, so he had no idea how to explain the whole situation to Nanako. He only just barely understood the whole thing himself, how he'd been a Shadow once but had somehow come to look like a friendly bear, how he'd developed emotions and an ego, a thing that was completely unprecedented for a Shadow. It was all so confusing to him, even now, the way his memories were all mashed up and confused. "It's hard to explain," he said finally.

Nanako frowned, obviously not satisfied with this. But she considered for a moment, applying her simple logic, and then smiled. "It's okay. I like this Teddie, too!"

"Nana-chan..." His voice was filled with relief and wonder. Nanako never failed to amaze him with her infinite amounts of understanding and acceptance. He was lost in reverie for a moment, but was snapped back to reality when he realized that Nanako's eyes were locked onto him in a look of expectation. Of course; Yosuke had told her, after all. "I've got a present for you, Nana-chan!"

She tried to sound surprised, though it was clear that she already knew. "Really? A present for me?!"

Teddie reached out and took her tiny hand in his furry blue one, leading her towards the shade of a tree along the riverbank. They sat down together on the soft grass, and he couldn't help but notice the look of wonder in her eyes. It didn't take a smart bear to know what Nanako had been expecting to see inside the TV world, and he was glad that he could show her the new, beautiful place that his home had become. "Okay, close your eyes!"

Nanako did as she was told, squeezing her eyes shut as tightly as she could and putting her hands over them. She could sense Teddie's movement next to her, and felt the slightest pressure on the top of her head, but that was all.

"You can open them now."

Though she had to blink a few times to readjust her eyes to the bright sunlight, it was easy to confirm that there seemed to be nothing new in front of her. But she could see her own reflection in Teddie's big black eyes, and there was a beautiful crown of flowers resting on her hair. Her own eyes widened, and she reached her tiny fingers up to touch the blossoms, all the while staring at herself in the bear's eyes.

"For a long time, I didn't know who I was," Teddie began, his voice soft and careful. "I was really confused. They thought maybe I might be the king of this world. I liked that idea, but I didn't really feel like a king. I didn't have a purpose." He paused for a moment, then squeezed Nanako's hand. "Not until I met you, Nana-chan."

The little girl didn't know what to say. Was this like those "confessions" that people talked about on TV dramas? She just kept looking up at Teddie's eyes, looking for some expression in them. But all she saw was herself. "Umm..."

"It would make Teddie bear-y happy if you could keep coming here to play, Nana-chan," Teddie went on, tilting his head in the closest thing his mostly-static face could get to a smile.

"You can't come play at my house anymore?" Nanako asked. This whole thing was so confusing. Teddie was a king? His human form was definitely pretty enough to be a king. But then he said that this was what he "really" looked like. Kind of. If Big Bro had been there, he would have explained it to her in a way she would understand. But Big Bro was far away. And now it seemed like Teddie was far away, too.

Teddie considered this for a moment. There wasn't anything in particular that was keeping him from going back to Inaba. And yet-- "I belong here, Nana-chan. And I'd really like it if you could be here with me sometimes." His face fell, ears drooping. "Unless you don't want to."

She shook her head violently in response. "You're my best friend, Teddie! Of course I want to play with you!" Then her face got serious, little eyebrows pointed into a V. "But you gotta come play at my house sometimes too! We can sit under the kotatsu when it's cold, and you can help me with my homework. 'Sides, I can't bring all my toys with me!"

Her determination made Teddie laugh. "Okay, okay. We'll trade! Teddie will go to your house, then you can come to Teddie's house. Deal?"

"Okay!" She gave a big nod, and then stood up, pulling on Teddie's arm and laughing. "C'mon, I wanna go catch a tadpole!"

As he followed -- was dragged, more like -- behind her, Teddie laughed too. Of course, he knew he couldn't have what he really wanted, for Nanako to stay there with him in the other world forever. But she was here now, his queen for a day, and he couldn't possibly be happier.


End file.
